Olympic Marathon 2016: Kipchoge completes gold double for Kenya

Traditionally on the last day of the Olympic Games the men’s Marathon completes the athletics competitions. After the first Marathon gold for Kenya at the women’s race Eliud Kipchoge completed the gold mission for Kenya’s long distance runners.

Shake of some competitors

For the first 15km most runners aiming for a top 10 result stayed together. Then the favorite Kipchoge increased the pace by a notch that transformed the lead pack into a string of runners following the leading Kipchoge. By the half way mark 46 runners were still in the group. 10km later the lead pack shrunk to just 8 runners leaving defending gold medalist Stephen Kiprotich and the young world champion from Eritrea Ghebreslassie behind. The faster pace on the next 2km split the group in half with Kipchoge, the two Ethiopian’s Lilesa and Berhanu as well as the surprising American Galen Rupp still in front.

Strong from start to finish

Kipchoge kept a fast pace and after 33km the medalists were set after Berhanu fell back. Kipchoge increased the pace even more coming to the finish line in the Sambadromo winning the race with a margin of more than a minute. The Kenyan showed a dominating race from start to finish letting everybody know that his transition from a track to a Marathon runner succeeded. Feyisa Lilesa came in second crossing his hands over the head as a political gesture in solidarity for the Oromo protests in Ethiopia. The bronze was won by the American Galen Rupp who won silver four years ago in the 10’000m race.

The first finisher from Europe was reigning European champion Tadesse Abraham from Switzerland. He is a Eritrea born refugee who started a second athletics career after seeking asylum several years ago in Switzerland. His seventh place is one of his biggest achievements so far.